The Knesset approved on Monday evening, April 1, the so-called Al Jazeera law, giving the government temporary powers to prevent foreign news networks from operating in Israel if they are “deemed by the security services to be harming national security.” The law passed 71 to 10 in its second and third readings in the Knesset plenum. Hadash-Ta’al lawmakers voted against the law.
Al-Jazeera report from Gaza, February 29, 2024 (Footage: Al Jazeera)
Far-right Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who spearheaded the effort to pass the law, vowed immediately after the final vote that the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera news channel would be closed down “in the coming days.” The Likud stated on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had spoken with Coalition Whip, MK Ofir Katz, to ensure that the bill passes and that the prime minister will act immediately to close Al Jazeera according to the procedure laid out in the law.
According to the law, if the prime minister becomes convinced that content broadcast by foreign media “harms in a real way the national security,” the communications minister can bring a resolution to the government to block that media’s television broadcast in Israel, shut down its offices, seize equipment used for its broadcasts, and block its website under certain conditions.
Knesset legal advisers insisted on the provision of judicial review, arguing that if this is not part of the bill, it will be deemed unconstitutional by Israel’s Supreme Court. Karhi and other members of the coalition argued during the legislative process that the judicial system should not be given this power but eventually agreed to leave the provision in the bill’s final version.
Hadash-Ta’al MKs opposed the bill during the debate in the Knesset plenum, arguing that the reason Israel wanted to block Al Jazeera’s Israeli broadcasts was to hide the extent of destruction and civilian casualties in Gaza. “Citizens of Israel, they are trying to put you under a cognitive siege… to block information about things being done in your name,” said Hadash-Ta’al MK Aida Touma-Sliman.
The government in December approved similar emergency regulations that would have temporarily shut down Al Jazeera, but Netanyahu reportedly decided not to do so for it not to negatively affect hostage negotiations being facilitated by Qatar. Hadash-Ta’al chair MK Ayman Odeh argued that the prime minister agreed this time to shut it down despite ongoing negotiations to delay a hostage’s deal.
“Any limitation on the right of journalists to operate anywhere in the world is of deep concern. And we’re seeing, frankly, all over the world, the negative trend in that regard,” told reporters in New York, the spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Stephen Dujarric.
Last November, Karhi submitted a proposal to take action against Haaretz by ending the publication of government notices in the daily newspaper. Karhi, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said the newspaper was “sabotaging Israel in wartime” and was an “inflammatory mouthpiece for Israel’s enemies.” The proposal, which was submitted without being vetted by the ministry’s legal adviser, would immediately halt any payments to Haaretz from any state entity within his purview.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31391
